Dit wat uit die vlees gebore is, is vlees; en wat uit die Gees gebore is, is gees (John 3:6).
We have a spirit, siel en liggaam. The question you might ask yourselves is: am I carnal and do I live after the flesh? Met ander woorde: does my flesh direct my steps and actions? Or do I live after the Spirit, and does my spirit direct my steps and actions?
You can live after the flesh or you can live after the Spirit. If you walk after the flesh, then the result will be bad. But if you life after the Spirit then the result will be good.
What a man sows, he will reap. As jy in die vlees saai, you will reap corruption and if you sow in the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting (Lees ook: Wat jy saai, Jy sal maai).
But let’s have a look at what Jesus meant by the new birth. What He meant, toe Hy gesê het, that you can only enter the Kingdom of God if you are born of water and Spirit. (Jn 3:3, 7)
If Jesus needed to restore the union, it means that union was there once, but was broken. Daarom, we need to go back to the Tuin van eden to understand the necessity of the new birth.
Throughout human history we see, that people chose the way of the flesh; walking in obedience to the devil, instead the way of the Spirit; walking in obedience to the Father. This started already in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve chose the carnal tree of knowledge rather than the holy tree of life. Because they desired and chose the carnal tree above the holy tree of life, God was compelled to pronounce the sentence of dead upon them.
Adam was 'n lewende siel
Adam was 'n lewende siel, born out of the Spirit. He was one with God. But after he sinned, the death sentence came upon him. And God said to him, that as he came from dust, and was dust, he also would return to dust.
Before Adam sinned, his predominant characteristic was spirit, but after he became disobedient to God and sinned, his predominant characteristic was flesh.
That sentence of death, that carnal disposition, was passed on to the entire human race. Almal, wat uit die saad van die mens gebore sou word, would carry the death. Therefore everyone, who is born on this earth is carnal, and is a prisoner of the sin nature. Daar is niemand uitgesluit nie.
How do you enter the Kingdom of God?
Because we are carnal and carry the sin nature, we cannot enter in this status the Kingdom of God:
But the natural man receive not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Korintiërs 2:14)
Nou sê ek, broers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; korrupsie erf ook nie korrupsie nie (1 Korintiërs 15:50)
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)
What is the necessity of the new birth?
Now you see the necessity of becoming born again. Only by the new birth can we receive eternal life and enter the Kingdom of God.
This spiritual life can ONLY be achieved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the catalyst that brings us to an encounter with the Holy Spirit, who regenerates us, so that we are born into the heavenly realm just as you were once born into the earthly realm.
Necessity of the new birth emphasised in other places
The necessity of the new birth is emphasised in other places:
- The universal results of sin demands it:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Rom 5:12)
Soos dit geskryf is, Daar is niemand regverdig nie, Nee, nie een nie (Rom 3:10)
- Unregenerate man is unable to understand or receive the gifts of God
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Co 2:14)
- Without the new birth everything we do, every impulse and action is defiled
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, Moorde, Thefts, hebsug, goddeloosheid, bedrog, ongebondenheid, an evil eye, blasphemy, Trots, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man (Mar 7:21-23)
- Unless we are born again we have no escape from the judgment of God
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worth in the children of disobedience: Onder wie ook ons almal in die verlede in die begeerlikhede van ons vlees ons gesprek gehad het, die vervulling van die begeertes van die vlees en van die verstand; en was van nature die kinders van die toorn, selfs soos ander (Eph 2:1-3)
